As large amounts of data are stored, the number of input/output operations with which information may be written to and retrieved from storage media is increasingly important. In some instances, databases are so large that they are too expensive or difficult to store on main operating memory, so the databases may be stored on secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive. The way in which data is written to and retrieved from these secondary storage significantly affects the speed with which information may be written and retrieved from the database. In some instances, it may be useful to store information in a database using key/values pairs.
Thus, to increase the speed of storage and retrieval of information, especially using key/value type storage, there is a need to reduce the number of input/output operations required to store or retrieve a value.